China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore oil producer, has acquired China National Chemical Construction Corporation (CNCCC).

The merger - announced on Sunday by the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) - will enable CNOOC to sharpen its competitiveness by capitalizing on CNCCC's skills in fertilizer production, chemical research, engineering design and international trade, according to Fu Chengyu, CNOOC general manager.

CNOOC is China's third largest oil company. Having focused on oil and natural gas exploration and production, it has been trying to expand into oil refining, petrochemicals and international trade.

By the end of 2005, the company had 191. 4 billion yuan (US$23.93 billion) in assets, and a sales volume of 88.9 billion yuan (US$11.25 billion).

CNCCC, also a state-owned enterprise (SOE), had assets worth 2.7 billion yuan (US$341.7 million) and a sales volume of 4.2 billion yuan (US$531.6 million) as at the end of 2005.

As major restructuring and mergers continue, China's SOE numbers have decreased from 198 in April 2003 - when the SASAC was established - to 165 this year.

More efforts are needed to further consolidate the SOE sector in order to relocate resources in a more efficient way, sources with the SASAC said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2006)